Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!
sé
noun. eye, eyeball, pupil
sehta-
verb. to see
hui oilima man kiluva
Who shall see the last evening?
man kiluva kirya ninqe?
Who shall see a white ship?
The first and fifth lines of the Oilima Markirya poem (MC/213). The first word is man “who” followed by the future tense of the verb kili- “to see”, translated “heed” in the fifth line. The object of the phrase is the noun kirya “ship”, followed by the adjective ninqe “white”.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> man kil-uva kirya ninqe = “✱who see-(future) ship white”
man kiluva lómi sangane?
Who shall see the clouds gather?
The twenty second line of the Oilima Markirya poem (MC/214). The first word is man “who” followed by the future tense of the verb kili- “to see”. The last two words serve as the object of the phrase: the plural of the noun lóme “cloud” with the “bare stem” infinitive form of the verb sanga- “to gather”, as suggested by Gilson, Welden, and Hostetter (PE16/84, notes on line #10 and #11), apparently functioning as either an active-participle or a verbal object.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> man kil-uva lóm-i sanga-ne = “✱who see-(future) cloud-(plural) gather-ing”
máno kiluvando ninqe lutya kirya wilwarindon
*who shall see a white ship sailing like a butterfly
The first phrase (lines 1-2) of the intermediate version of the Oilima Markirya poem (PE16/77). The first word is a variant (masculine?) form máno of the interrogative pronoun man “who” followed by future 3rd-singular masculine inflection of the verb kili- “to see”.
The object of the phrase is the noun kirya “ship” preceded by the adjective ninqe “white” and the active-participle lutya “sailing” of the verb lutu- “to sail”, also functioning as an adjective. The phrase ends with the adverbial form of the noun wilwarin “butterfly”: wilwarindon = “like a butterfly”.
The sense of the phrase seems to be identical to the first two lines in the English translations of the poem LA2a-LA2b (PE16/68-9): “who shall see a white ship sailing like a butterfly”.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> máno kil-uva-ndo ninqe lut-ya kirya wilwarin-don = “✱who see-(future)-he white sail-ing ship butterfly-like”
mára mesta an ni véla tye ento, ya rato nea
good-bye until I see you next, and I hope it will be soon
This is a sentence in the “Arctic” language written in a supposed letter from Santa from Tolkien to his children in 1929. In form, it resembles the Quenya of this time period, and most scholars consider it an example of that language, though perhaps somewhat simplified. @@@
kili-
verb. to see, heed
tunta-
verb. to see, notice, perceive
véla
verb. to see
hen
noun. eye
sinda
noun. eye
laiwa
adjective. pale
tu
pronoun. he
níva
adjective. pale
The thirty fifth line of the Oilima Markirya poem (MC/214). The first word is the noun hui “evening” followed by the adjective oilima “last”. This serves as the object for the second half of the phrase, with the subject man “who” and the future tense of the verb kili- “to see”.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> hui oilima man kil-uva = “✱evening last who see-(future)”